Want to keep more donors? This week’s Click-It will show you how in a number of different ways. Create magical experiences for supporters by taking a page from Disney. Craft a persuasive case for support by stepping into your donor’s shoes and asking yourself, and your team, some critical questions. Learn more about the importance of personalization by watching a video from Starbucks. Understand the psychology of the three different types of buyers (aka donors). And think critically about the number of appeals you send, and how this may help or hurt your donor acquisition, renewal and upgrade efforts. Plus you’ll find some “News You Can Use” (tons of really useful data and reports) at the bottom of this post. To your success!

Keeping Donors

Click-It: How Disney Creates Magical Experiences (and a 70% Return Rate) from the Help Scout blog gives lessons you can apply to your nonprofit in order to enhance donor loyalty and retention. Walt viewed his theme parks almost as “factories” that produced delight and entertainment. What does your organization do to create a customer service culture that will delight your supporters? Long before Hillary Clinton wrote “It Takes a Village,” Walt understood this: “Whatever we have accomplished is due to the combined effort. The organization must be with you, or you can’t get it done.” This article makes for a very interesting read.

Case for Support

Click-It: Defining Your Case Through Four Vexingly Simple Questions by Andrew Brommel of Campbell & Company could also have been titled “Deceptively” simple questions. Because, while simple, these queries go to the heart of what it takes to be an effective nonprofit communicator and fundraiser. ACTION TIP: Convene an inter-departmental group and try to address these questions one at a time. Can you answer them thoughtfully and strategically? If you can, it will take you far.

Click-It:The 3 Types of Buyers, and How to Optimize for Each One, a guest post by Jeremy Smith on Neuromarketing, describes how understanding and embracing human psychology helps you understand consumer behaviors. He describes three types of buyers: Spendthrifts, Tightwads and Average Buyers. I happen to believe this applies to donors as well. Take a look, and see how it might help you with your fundraising offers. There’s a big storytelling trend these days (and for good reason); this article helps you determine when adding in a soupçon of data can help.

Appeal Frequency

Click-it: Is It Better or Worse to Send More Appeals? Michael Rosen gives us a thoughtful piece showing the answer to how many appeals you should send is not a simple one. If you’re going to test it for your nonprofit, you may want to track a number of variables. “For now, what we know is that multiple appeals will generate more current net revenue. However, we don’t know how many appeals are optimal. We also do not know the affect multiple appeals have on donor retention and Lifetime Value.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Click-It: Must-Read Fundraising and Social Media Reports for Nonprofitsis a thorough list from Nonprofit Tech for Good with everything from the Nonprofit Benchmarks Study to the mGive Text Giving Study to the Millennial Impact Report to the Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Study and more. There’s something for everyone here.

Want more ways to keep more donors? I’ll be speaking in person at the AFP Silicon Valley luncheon meeting April 21st on why “A Donor is a Terrible Thing to Lose.” If you’re in the area, come by to learn how to improve your bottom line by recalibrating your strategies to concentrate more efforts on donor retention. Not nearby? Check out my Donor Retention and Gratitude Playbook.

Engaging your help was such a huge pivot moment for me and the Board. We would never – not in a million years – have even dreamed of doing a significant challenge at our event without all of the teaching, support, resources and guidance that you brought to us. Sometimes there are these moments in life that you only realize in retrospect were miracles – and that is exactly how I look back at that decision to work with you on our fundraising engine!

Claire Axelrad has been a highly effective fundraiser for over 30 years and her blog is just a wealth of wisdom. What’s particularly notable about Clairification is that although the work is based on decades of past experience, Claire is always looking forward as well. She was the first among her veteran fundraising peers to embrace online and social fundraising and is now one of their most sensible and insightful proponents. She’s a great resource!

You have been absolutely terrific to work with. Your roadmap and assessment of where we are and where we can go has been so instrumental in having the board stop and think about our future. Your audit is allowing us to move forward in tangible ways to improve our work so that we may help more clients in need of our services. I will count you among my many blessings throughout the year.

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You are one of the few fundraising experts that I read faithfully, and we have no shortage of those who publish regularly. But your material is always thoughtful and realistic. Thank you for your candor and good advice.

I read your newsletter all the time and find your advice “spot on” and always usable. I pass it on consistently to the staff and other board members. I really appreciate all you do to help nonprofits. Thanks.

You remind me about what is most important and why I love this profession. I just discovered you and your blog about three weeks ago and I wanted to write today to say thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise. I find your posts, new and old, so spot on. You nail it.

Everybody involved in philanthropy should read these articles slowly and with a very opened mind and a willingness to take from them the necessary components to change the manner and techniques we presently use in order to embrace what philanthropy is all about “Love”. I have no doubt it would be transformational.

I came across your website and I hit the goldmine! I was asked to join a board and found I need to understand how to build a donor base from the ground up. I searched, only to find expensive consultants or free info that didn’t offer any helpful information. Thank you for sharing so much valuable information!!

Wow! Inspiration out the wazoo! Many thanks — I keep up with trends and lots of blog-posts to stay on top of my game. This goes way beyond technique and reaches deep inside to remind me why I’ve done this work for 40 years!

Thank you for your brilliant blog. I have been a follower for many years and learnt so much from you. Ultimately, it translates into many more families getting the support they deserve. You help me raise more money for my UK charity. Please never stop bringing the best out of me! You’re special.

Exactly what our profession can use – clarification –- the title of your blog. You help us keep faith with the past while making sense of the present and future. You have a balanced and respectful understanding of what this is all about. Thanks.

I’d recommend you sign up. I signed up for about a dozen blogging fundraiser consultants, but have since canceled most. She’s one of two left standing. I like how she organizes her thoughts about fundraising, and her conversation planning techniques are very familiar to me from my work as a prosecutor. I believe that she was a practicing attorney and who changed careers like I have, and my best guess is that she was a litigator as well. This is a very good article and there are several other blogs (her own) that she links to within it, so even though this is a small article you could spend some time here.